72 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



and Parry archipelago where the main object was geographic dis- 

 covery — the traversing and study of unexplored seas, the discovery 

 and mapping of unknown lands, and the further survey of islands 

 already partly known. 



This report, mailed from Barrow in November, reached the De- 

 partment of Naval Service in February. Independent reports and 

 requisitions had also reached them from the station of Anderson's 

 southern division at Collinson Point, which at the time they sent 

 them had not heard (except through unreliable Eskimo rumors) 

 from the Karluk or from me since the news of us they got when they 

 followed us east around Barrow last August. The Naval Service 

 also received a telegram from me sent later with the midwinter 

 mail from Fort Macpherson. The Department replied to all these 

 communications by sending the following telegram to the telegraph 

 office nearest Herschel Island, distant about one month's rapid 

 journey by dog sled: 



Ottawa, 28th February, 1914. 

 "V. Stefansson, 



Care of Superintendent J. D. Moodie, 

 Koyal Northwest Mounted Police, 

 Dawson, Yukon. 

 'Y'our reports from Barrow and wire from Macpherson received. 

 Your decision to pursue expedition as per orginal plans is approved. 

 Trust you will soon have news of Karluk. 



"(Signed) G. J. DESBARATS." 



This was a satisfactory message, especially the sentence: "Your 

 decision to pursue expedition as per original plan is approved." 



Although this telegram was justified by the outcome, and now 

 seems the only logical one that could have been sent, it represented 

 at the time a decision by the Department of Naval Service which 

 showed a realization of arctic problems, and a confidence in our 

 prognosis of how they could be met under altered conditions not 

 exactly reflected in the press. For while the Department were de- 

 ciding to approve my plan of going ahead, the newspapers were 

 saying that the entire complement of the Karluk had perished, that 

 my plans were unsound, and that the expedition had failed. Edi- 

 tors especially, who presumably had been through high school, were 

 asserting that all the knowledge ever gained in the Arctic was not 

 worth the sacrifice of the life of one young Canadian. 



I am one of those who think the fighting of the Great War worth 

 while not so much to attain what was attained as to prevent what 



